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5 Leva Foreign Exchange Certificate
| Issuer | Българска Народна Банка (Bulgarian National Bank) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1986 |
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| Currency | Third lev (1962-1999) |
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| Obverse description | BNB monogram arms cartouche at upper centre with Cyrillic bank title below. Large denomination numeral '5' at upper left and right corners, flanked by two guilloche rosette vignettes bearing 'БНБ / ПЕТ ЛЕВА' inscriptions. Central area carries the title 'ПОИМЕНЕН ЧЕК' in bold letterpress, with printed text lines for payee name, account, and authorisation fields over a fine guilloche underprint. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | БЪЛГАРСКА НАРОДНА БАНКА ПОИМЕНЕН ЧЕК ПЛАТЕТЕ СРЕЩУ ТОЗИ ЧЕК НОМИНАЛНАТА МУ СТОЙНОСТ ОТ НАРЕДИТЕЛ СМЕТКА ЛЕВА БНБ ПЕТ ЛЕВА ЗА ПОДПРАВКА ВИНОВНИТЕ СЕ НАКАЗВАТ ПО ЗАКОНА ВАЖИ САМО ЗА ПОКУПКИ В МАГАЗИНИТЕ, ИЗВЪРШВАЩИ ПРОДАЖБИ В НЕСОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКА ВАЛУТА АЯ 86 |
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| Comments |
Bulgaria's foreign exchange certificates — certhificati in local parlance — were issued by the BNB through Corecom and Korecom retail outlets as a parallel currency mechanism designed to capture hard currency from foreign visitors and Bulgarian citizens receiving remittances from abroad. Holders could use them at specialist shops stocking Western goods otherwise unavailable through normal state retail channels, a system the socialist government operated openly from the late 1970s through the late 1980s.
The 1986 series replaced an earlier issue and featured tighter anti-counterfeiting measures — the certificates were not legal tender in any conventional sense and could not be exchanged back into foreign currency by the holder.